Information Today, Inc. held its Internet Librarian 2000 Conference, November 5-9, 2000 in the beautiful Californian city of Monterey at Doubletree and Monterey Marriott hotels.

Dr. Michael Binder, Dean of the Western Kentucky University Libraries & Museum, and Haiwang Yuan, Web Site & Virtual Library Coordinator, attended the conference and presented their paper, "TIP - A Model for Becoming the Portal of Choice."

Internet Librarian 2000 was the fourth such annual conference, bringing together librarians and information managers from all over the United States as well as from abroad.  It showcased "a mixture of leading-edge ideas and tools as well as exciting new events - all focused on information professionals and Internet-related technologies" (for more information, visit Information Today's Web site at www.infotoday.com/il2000/overview.htm). Its programs consisted of five themes:

* Web Tools and Systems
* Search Engines and Virtual Communities
* Content Management and eRoles
* Portals, Information Architecture, and Knowledge Management
* Internet@Schools

The conference featured more than 100 knowledgeable speakers, who delivered their presentations around the above themes in four simultaneous tracks from November 6 through 8.  Supplemented by 20 workshops, two evening sessions, and eight cybertours, the presentations brought "case studies, fresh concepts, practical tips, concrete successful strategies, real world applications and many lessons learned" (To access the papers, visit ww.infotoday.com/il2000/presentations/).

Internet Librarian 2000 was an eye-opening learning event. While Binder and Yuan had the opportunity to introduce our Topper InfoPortal (TIP) to an international audience of librarians and information professionals, they also gained further knowledge of portals and their potential. Binder and Yuan were also exposed to a new world of electronic reference, where librarians and remote users are connected and interacting with each other in a real time scenario on the Internet via technologies already available to us. They also learned what new technologies and trends are in store for libraries in the near future. 

The presentation given by Dean Binder and Haiwang Yuan was well received by the attendees and gave rise to insightful discussions. Its PowerPoint presentation may be retrieved at www.wku.edu/~yuanh/TIP_Eng/ppframe.htm.

~Mike Binder and Haiwang Yuan
 
 

 

Last summer, Cravens Library  acquired an extremely  large collection of LP's belonging to the Music Department.  In addition, there have been at least three donations of LP's/45's/78's to our collection (from various individuals), including Steven Stines of New York City, who donated 379 books and 372 phonograph records dealing with Broadway musicals and the New York theater in general to the library's collection last February 2000. In total, we now have approximately 15,000 LP's in Cravens.  In the near future, these will be cataloged for patron use. We are in the process of establishing policies that best suit the needs of our patrons (faculty, staff, and students), keeping security measures and the nature of LP's in mind.

We are also currently in the process of acquiring various musical audio equipment for our workstations in Circulation.  We now have 6 CD players, 3 audiocassette players/recorders, and 2 turntables for audio playback.  Of course, we also have headphones for listening.  In the near future, we will have a CD writer (for dubbing and preservation purposes).

Reserve/Circulation now houses all media available for checkout.  The Student Technology Center previously provided this service, but it has been transferred to Reserve (along with all the audio workstations).

~Michael Franklin
 
 

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